Category: North Dakota

Since January of 2009 when President Obama took office, job openings by state as measured on Career Builder have increased 7.6% to 252,884 from 235,059. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 9.9% in May of 2010 and 15.3 million people were unemployed. While the increase is encouraging, job openings must increase much more to make a dent in the high number of unemployed.

Thirty six states have seen increases in job openings under Obama while 14 states have seen decreases.

Of the ten largest states, 9 have shown increases in the number of job openings. Of these large states, North Carolina was the Best State for Job Openings on Careerbuilder. Job openings have increased 17.0% in North Carolina since Obama became President. Illinois was the only large state to show a decrease in job openings since January of 2009. Its job openings decreased 4.5%. California has the most job openings on Careerbuilder yet its unemployment at 12.6% is the second highest in the nation.

The list of best and worst states for job openings follows. Interestingly, some of the states with low unemployment such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont have seen job openings shrink.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released state unemployment for December 2009 today. Every state in the U.S. saw its unemployment rate rise in 2009.

The Best State for Jobs and Employment in 2009 was North Dakota. It had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 4.4%. Its unemployment rate increased by 1.1% in 2009. South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas were also Top States for Jobs and Employment.
The Worst State for Jobs and Employment in 2009 was Michigan. Its unemployment ended the year at 14.6%, an increase of 4.4% in 2009. 21 states and D.C. saw their unemployment ranks increase by 3% or more in 2009. 2009 was a very bad year for those seeking employment. Nevada, Rhode Island, South Carolina, California and D.C. all were Worst States for Jobs and Unemployment in 2009. They all have unemployment rates of 12% or higher.

Minnesota and North Dakota had the smallest unemployment increases in 2009 with increases of only 0.8%. The Worst States forUnemployment Increases were West Virginia and Nevada which had increases of 4.6% in unemployment. The list of Best and Worst States for Jobs and Employment is below. It is presented from best to worst based on year over year changes. Politically, these are very poor numbers for the Obama administration. With the large health care bill off the table for now, let’s hope businesses will become a little more willing to hire in 2010.

Best and Worst States for Jobs

Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?

I thought you would find the rankings of state higher education spending and state university rankings useful. Intuitively one would believe that states that spend more would have better ranked universities. Higher State spending does not mean it is a Best State for Education. Lower State spending does not mean it is a Worst State for Education. A closer look is warranted.

Utah spends the most of its state budget on higher education at 15.5%. Its University of Utah is ranked 126 according to U.S. News 2009 College Ratings. New York spends the least of all states on higher education with only 5.4% of its budget yet its highest rated public school SUNY-Binghamton is ranked higher than Utah at 80. North Dakota is a close second in spending at 15.4% and its university’s state ranking in education is Tier III. Tier III means it is ranked in the 50-75% of all national universities i.e. below average. 7 of the 10 lowest spending states on higher education have higher university rankings than high spending North Dakota. North Dakota does not get much bang for its buck.
High Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

NorthCarolina is third highest ranked state on higher education spending at 14.2% and has the highest rated public university of the high spending states with a rank of 28. This appears to be a positive spend to school rank association. Yet neighboring Georgia with a spend of 7.6% has its Georgia Institute of Technology rated 35. Georgia Institute of Technology is higher than every high spend state ranking other than North Carolina.

Alaska is the second lowest higher education spending ranked state at 6.1% and appears to get what it pays for. Its school is rated a bottom 25% Tier IV by U.S. News. Florida is the third lowest state in spend at 6.3% and appears to get very good returns with the University of Florida rated 47, higher than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
States with the lowest spending on higher education are primarily in the Northeast. 7 of the lowest 10 states are from the Northeast. They are, in addition to New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine. Yet 4 of the states, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have higher ranked schools than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
Low Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

A simple thesis that more spending on education leads to better results continues to be elusive. Be wary of political leaders who say that they are managing your education system better by spending more money. Check the results.

With unemployment rising and economic stress increasing, the trust we have in our neighbors and community is of increasing concern. We want to live in a Safe States as they are Best States to Live. The poll asked people if they believed a lost wallet with $200 in would be returned. Nationwide 70% of people believe that their wallet would be returned with money still in the wallet. Large States according to Gallup are generally viewed as less trustworthy. People in the Southern half of the country do not trust their neighbors as much as people in the North. See Gallup’s map below.

The Best States for Neighbor Trust are:

The Worst States for Neighbor Trust are:

People in the South do not trust their neighbors as much as the North according to Gallup. Chart courtesy of Gallup.

When picking your place to live consider your neighbors. Safe States are Best States to Retire and are Top States to Live

We ran our September 2009 Best and Worst States for Job openings. Job Openings dropped an alarming 6.2% on September 30 as compared to July 31. This is particularly discouraging as we had seen our only increase in job openings this year in July. This reversal ratifies the year long downward trend. We develop our analysis from data listed by the nation’s largest job posting service CareerBuilder.com. It is a good proxy for job openings nationwide.

Job Openings nationwide shrank in September to 217,040 from 231,370 in July, a drop of 14,330 job openings.

48 States saw jobs shrink. Alaska, NorthDakota, South Dakota and Montana saw the biggest percentage job opening losses. KentuckyJobs, with an increase of only 180 job openings. and Utah Jobs, up 30, were the TopStates for Jobs and the only 2 states in the nation that showed improvement since July 31.

CaliforniaJobs shrank the most numerically with an 1197 loss at September 30. Texas Jobs, Florida Jobs and Pennsylvania Jobs showed large losses in numbers in September. ( I will post analysis of Job Opening Losses during the Obama Administration after unemployment numbers are released for September)

The list of Best and Worst States for Jobs as of September 2009 follows:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released state unemployment numbers for August 2009. State Employment statistics show a continued worsening. 14 States and DC now have unemployment rates of 10% or greater. North Dakota has the nation’s best state employment rate with 95.7% of its people employed. All 50 State Unemployment rates are listed below.

The Best States for Employment were North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah and Virginia.

The Worst States for Employment were Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, Oregon and California.

California has the most unemployed in the nation with 2.248 million people out of work. The States with Most Unemployment are:

The Best States for Jobs are primarily heartland states. The Best State for Jobs is North Dakota with an unemployment rate of only 4.2%. Nebraska and South Dakota at 4.9% are the only other states under 5%. Utah is our fourth Best State for Jobs at 6%. You will have a decent chance to find a job in Iowa, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana.

If you are looking for a job in a state with very high unemployment, you might want to consider a state where the opportunities are broader and fewer people looking. In other words, consider changing your state. Michigan at 15.2% is the Worst State for Jobs. Approximately 1 in every 6 people are unemployed. Rhode Island, Nevada, Oregon and California are some of the Worst States for Jobs with rates all close to 12%.

High unemployment also creates a reinforcing negative cycle. Unemployment creates downward pressure on real estate, commerce and social institutions. It does not turn around quickly. While unemployment is one very important metric in your search for employment, job openings i.e. who is hiring now? should also be considered. For recent info on job openings by state see Best States for Job Openings

After dropping like a rock during the first few months of the year and staying there through May, job openings have increased 8.59% nationwide since May 31, according to analysis released by BestandWorstStates.com. This is encouraging news and reinforces the view that employment dynamics are improving from their lows. While a significant rebound, it should be viewed with caution as job openings are still 1.57% below late January levels, just prior to the stimulus package being passed. Total job openings are not high enough to make a significant improvement to the jobless rate which was released this week to be a slightly improved 9.4%. For a complete list of state job opening activity see previous post List of Job Openings by State

Job openings increased nationwide 8.59% from May 31, 2009 from 210,048 to 231,370 on July 31, 2009. This increase is quite significant with 44 states showing increases during the past two months. The Top States for Jobs were mostly small states. Indiana was a notable large state on the Best State for Jobs list with a 18.14% increase in job openings during the last 60 days. Most of the Best States for Jobs have below average unemployment rates. The number of job openings in many of these states are quite small. Many of these small states would be Best States for Jobs if you are looking for employment however. For the complete Best States for Jobs List see

Job openings have decreased 1.57% since the end of January nationwide even though 30 states have more job openings than in January. The Top Ten US States according to population have shown a 4.1% decrease in job openings. California, the US largest state, has 9.3% lower jobs available than in January. With a 11.6% jobless rate, California appears to be a poor state for job seekers. Illinois is also a Worst State for Jobs with a 14.2% drop in openings along with a 10.5% unemployment rate. The US unemployment rate will not improve significantly without the Top Ten States also improving as these states have about 50% of the US population.

The US States continued to see rising unemployment in June. 16 States, if you count DC, now have unemployment rates greater than 10.0%. 38 states and DC saw increases from May. All 50 states and DC have higher unemployment than a year ago. Our national unemployment rate was 9.5% in June. The July national jobless numbers will be released on August 7.

Michigan continues to be the Worst State for Jobs with a 15.2% jobless rate. North Dakota is the Best State for Jobs with only a 4.2% unemployment rate.

3 of the 5 largest states by population have rates greater than 10.% They are California, Florida and Illinois. California has more than twice as many jobless as any other state with 2.146 million jobless in June. California hasthemost unemployed people in the nation. The next largest amount of unemployed are in Florida with 970,000 jobless in June according to BLS statistics.

We will be releasing shortly our updated analysis of job openings. Unemployment will continue to rise until more job openings start to appear. List of Best and Worst States for Jobs is below.

Click on the category Best and Worst States for Jobs on the right navigation for our collection of articles on Jobs.

In our Job Openings post you will see the trends by state in job openings and what states are currently experiencing increased job openings. We also have published the List of Job Openings by State

******Editor’s Note: The rest of this post was published in April 2009 Go to Best and Worst States for our latest *********************

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March State Unemployment rates this week. For our August 2009 listing and analysis of Best States for Job Openings click

We now have 8 states with unemployment above 10%. Michigan is the Worst State for Jobs with an unemployment rate of 12.6%. Oregon is also very bad for jobs with a rate of 12.1%. California, our most populated state, has an unemployment of 11.2% meaning that 1 out of 9 people are out of work. South Carolina also is a Worst State for Jobs with unemployment of 11.4%.

The Best State for Jobs in March was North Dakota at 4.2%. The other Top 5 States for Jobs were Wyoming at 4.5%, Nebraska at 4.6%, South Dakota at 4.9%. Iowa and Utah were tied for fifth with 5.2% unemployment.

We thought we would take a look this month also at how states that are ranked for small business are doing on the job front. In theory the better the small business environment the better the job environment. We used the recently released SBEC report. See: Best and Worst States for Small Business

The data shows that the Best States for Small Business are not all the Best States for Jobs at this moment. 5 of the top 10 Best States for Small Business, for example, have below average i.e. higher, unemployment. 45th ranked Iowa for example has the 4th best employment in the U.S.

As mentioned in the previous post, the SBEC index is primarily a tax based system and high or lower taxes are not the only reason companies grow and create jobs. It would appear intuitive over time business friendly states should create more business and jobs. We will continue to watch this during the cycle as the better states may grow first and faster.